THE SUPPOSED EXTINCTION OF VANESSA C-ALBUM. 251 



autumn as the present one, except in the year 1875, when every 

 blackberry bush was covered with specimens of this lovely and 

 distinct species until late into the autumn. There is a habit 

 here in hop-grounds of collecting all the bine after the gathering 

 is over and burning it, and thus all the larvae and pupae which 

 have not been destroyed, when the poles are torn down and the 

 hops gathered, perish in the fire, excepting those which have 

 emerged and thus escape destruction. For many years I have 

 bribed those over whom I have a control in this parish to collect 

 for me every larva and pupa they can find, and by this means I 

 have preserved many thousands of this lovely butterfly ; hundreds 

 I have sent as larvae and pupae to be let loose in Surrey and 

 elsewhere, hoping to introduce the species, but without success ; 

 and hundreds have gone to gladden other naturalists in their 

 collections. 



This year I have had about one thousand larvae and pupae 

 brought me from the few hop-grounds in our parish ; and I learn 

 that around Tenbury, where hop-grounds are far more plentiful 

 than here, the species swarms, and it has been sad to see the 

 destruction of larvae and pupae. So far on the "extinction" of 

 this butterfly. 



I would further wish to utter a protest against confusing 

 three lovely and most distinct species, and striving to teach that 

 they spring from one common stock. In all courtesy I would ask 

 Mr. Coverdale if he is familiar with the larva and pupa of 

 V. C-album, and how widely they differ from those of V. poly- 

 chloros and V. urtic<je ^ The habit of C-alhum is to lay its eggs 

 singly. I never saw two larvae feeding on the same leaf, rarely on 

 the same stem. In the spring currant and nettle is the favourite 

 food, in the autumn exclusively hop, so far as my experience 

 goes, always lying exposed on the under side of its leaf. Vanessa 

 polychloros and V. urticce, on the contrary, deposit their eggs in 

 masses, and the young larvae live, as is well known, in webs, and 

 are strictly gregarious, the former on a bough of wych elm (some 

 twenty or thirty feet from the ground), every leaf of which they 

 consume ; the latter on nettle, a bed of which is eaten up by one 

 brood. How can anyone seriously propose that these three 

 spring from one stock ? 



The larva of Vanessa C-album is a wonderfully beautiful one, 

 and might well lead to its being placed— as by Mr. Stainton— in 



